The present invention relates to a liquid fuel preheater for internal combustion engines, in particular to such a preheater utilizing a relatively simple yet highly effective mechanism for maintaining a relatively uniform temperature of the fuel entering the engine even when external conditions or fuel consumption change dramatically.
It is well recognized in the art that preheating of gasoline prior to combustion in an engine of a motorized vehicle increases the efficiency of the heated gasoline as compared to non-preheated gasoline. One theory proposed for this increased efficiency is that with preheating more of the energy of combustion can be utilized to cause expansion of the gases in the combustion chamber, thus increasing the power produced as opposed to such energy being used to heat the liquid fuels to vaporization temperatures.
Many prior art devices have been utilized to preheat gasoline and other liquid fuels; however, in general, each such device has had the disadvantage of either being insensitive to changes in ambient temperatures and/or fuel usage or have been relatively complicated and therefore subject to high maintenance and failure while also being relatively expensive.
The present invention on the other hand is relatively sensitive to changes in external conditions or fuel usage and basically requires only already existing equipment for controlling the temperature of the gasoline.